by In an amazingly horrible PR spin — not unlike Renaming the Slaughterhouse — the big soda pop makers are fighting the New York City ban on using Federal welfare money on sugary drinks — because, I guess, the Sugar Pimps want our kids unhealthy and fat.
“Once you start going into grocery carts, deciding what people can or cannot buy, where do you stop?” asked Kevin W. Keane, senior vice president of the American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
New York officials estimate that $75 million to $135 million in food stamp benefits are spent on sugar-sweetened beverages in the city each year. Such beverages, they say, are the single largest contributor to the obesity epidemic.
“This initiative will give New York families more money to spend on foods and drinks that provide real nourishment,” Mr. Bloomberg said in seeking federal approval. City officials noted that federal policy already bans the sale of soft drinks in school lunch programs across the country.
Here’s how much refined sugar is included in standard, non-dietetic, soft drinks:
8 oz. cup of soda = 6-7 teaspoons of sugar
12 oz. can of soda = 9-11 teaspoons of sugar
20 oz. bottle of soda = 16-18 teaspoons of sugar
1 liter bottle of soda = 27-31 teaspoons of sugar
2 liter bottle of soda = 54-62 teaspoons of sugar
That is a mountain of sugar! How can we be so hooked as a nation on fueling our bodies with empty calories that instantly turn into stored fat?
We fight alcoholism and smoking and yet we continue to feed our kids mounds of subsidized sugar in order to keep them occupied and hyperkinetic. How many scientific studies have been done on the relationship between ADHD and sugar intake, or Autism and the mother’s intake of refined sugar during pregnancy?
We live in dangerous and desperate times, and when companies become shills and Pimps for refined sugar against our best vested interests in health and well-being — we need to take a prescient step back and wonder why those Sugar Pimp businesses are so determined to poison us with unrivaled indulgences we do not need and cannot abide?
It’s thoroughly disgusting, David! Added sugar does us no good and welfare should not be subsidizing the big soda business which is in no danger of failing any time soon.
It’s shocking how money always triumphs over best health policies.
I don’t like reading this. They’re desperate, aren’t they? The soda pop people are rotting our teeth and our tummies. Will we ever learn to reject what we’ve been sold?
I don’t understand how we became so dependent on sugar water. Do we crave that artificial high so much that we’re willing to pay to get the buzz?